The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-12-14
CURIOUS PHYSICAL DEFECT.
The Peculiar Phsnomena Called Sound
MISUNDERSTANDING Observations.


misunderstanding Observations.
The phenomena OF color blindness are
well known and have been carefully In
vestigated We know that some persons
can see to great distances, discern minute
objects, enjoy works Of art, and yet are
unable TO distinguish certain colors. Ply
siologists, and especially psychologists,
have also found that there is a similar
series OF phenomena TO be observed in
connection with the sense OF hearing II
a word were coined TO describe these phe-
nomena it would naturally be Sound
deafness, - but many who have written on
this subject seem to prefer the term
sound blindness.
A writer in The London Journal OF
Education uses the term Sound blind
ness, - and seems TO have come 10 the sub
iect from pedsgogic standpoint He
states that the difficulties which some
persons have i'm learning 10 spell and in
learning how To pronounce foreign Ian
guages suggested to him the possibility Of
the existence OF such thing as sound
blindness-an inability to distinguish par
ticular shades of sound arising from some
organic defect in the ear which il distinct
from deafness as that term is commonly
understood.
The writer in question noticed that
small boy, in writing down line Of poe
try which he had learned boy heart, had
spelled the word very 'yOght When
some experiments were tried il was found
that the boy could hear no difference be-
tween very, perry and polly and yet
he was not deaf. The boy ia question
had great difficulty in learning 10 read,
and. on inquiry being made, many teach
ers were found who testified 10 the fact
that il is quite common thing to meet
with children who ale very slow in learn
ue 10 read precisely, because sounds, diff
lcrrut 90 The teacher were not different
to them II was also found that when
class of boys reads aloud, some OF them
often give. instead Of word, its synO.
ugm. though the latter be quite different
m sound from the former The boys
Wh. were most apt % DO this were the
boys whose power of hearing was already
Wmcr Su-piciOn and ! inferred that they
associated the printed letters, not with
tneir sound, but with the concrete thing
which they represented, much as If they
h1d been IL picture
Another interesting observation Is that
If boy Of II years OF age, who IS bad
spoilcT. aud when writing from dictatiOn
makes mistakes ia words which have an T
lr an I'm them. lie cannot pronounce
chose letters, but his failure is believed TO
be- the result of defect of ear, though he
is hy 300 means deaf quite as much rs the
result oi q defect Of tongue or palate.
SOM, of his mi-spollings are "suuderel-
entsn for "sundry rents. 80 ''compreatedn
Cor complicated "laserlacions' for
laccililous.
Ihe writer points ont that want OF
power todistingish vowel sounds is quite
IT,. likely to be Ihe cause of bad spelling in
common words rs carclessness amounting
100 malice prepensc, on a weakness IN the
machinery which connects the movements
ID the hand with the orders of the ear
Nc continues, "W We might have expected
that. OBJ the analogy Of color blindness,
vowel sounds would be more likely TO be
confused than cons0nant sounds. So far
as my present experiments have gone
infer that the inability u distinguish con
-0uauts is as common as "a want Of dis
tucti0u between yOWcls Science.